Principles and Heresies

As the subtitle to Kevin Smant's biography indicates, the shape of the postwar American conservative movement was decisively influenced by Frank Meyer (1909-1973). One of the most passionate and committed of the Cold War's communists-turned-conservatives, Meyer's untiring efforts to locate a principled ground for the "fusion" of the disparate strands of conservatism—particularly its traditionalist and libertarian wings—provided the necessary cohesion for a fractious movement to eventually sweep to power with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Smant's volume traces Meyer's intellectual evolution from communist radical—Meyer was expelled from the London School of Economics for distributing communist literature, and he did extensive work for the Communist Party in America during the 1930s and 1940s—to conservative intellectual and political activist, with considerable attention devoted to Meyer's work and influence at National Review. In the process, Smant demonstrates Meyer's vital role in channeling disparate forces and personalities toward the creation of a unified conservative political movement.